Atlantic Slave Trade in the 17th and 18th Century

From Caribbean plantations to New England seaports, enslaved Africans played vital roles in building the Atlantic world from the 17th to the early 19th centuries. Taking a comparative approach, we will investigate how people survived, adapted to, and resisted slavery in different regions, time periods, and cultural contexts. We will consider the broader social and economic implications of the slave trade and the reliance on coerced labor in the Americas. Delving into the vast historiography on this subject, we will also discuss how scholars have investigated and interpreted the role of slavery using different methodologies and arguments.

Objectives: To gain a deeper understanding of the different experiences of slavery and its central place in the history of the Atlantic region; to consider the impact of slavery and its long-term consequences on social constructions of race, gender, class, and labor relations in various times and places; and, by reading a range of scholarly works, to better comprehend how historians use evidence to construct different interpretations of the past.